When Decorators Need to Practice Their Roses
October 1, 2008 When there's a new kid in the bakery, these designs help speed up the on-the-job training:
The "Rose Bush".
(I'm told there's a cake under there...)
The "Rosy Age".
I had to stare at this one for several long seconds before I realized the roses are supposed to spell out the number 20. The cool thing is, though, this cake has a built-in clock: see where the light pink roses meet the darker ones on the 2? That's when the first decorator's shift ended.
(Gotta love that candle placement, too.)
And of course, the "Haven't-Learned-to-Write-with-Icing-Yet".
No room for an inscription = no complaints about messy handwriting! Not to mention there's no chance of spelling errors, random quotation marking, or becoming famous on the 'net for all the wrong reasons.
The best part? The people who ordered the first and last cakes didn't even ask for that many roses. So Kim C. & Jill S., thanks for showing us just how specific we need to be when ordering baked goods. Now we know.
(Everybody together now: "And knowing is half the battle!")
Reader Comments (122)
I just love how the 20 in roses cake only has 19 roses!
These cakes look good to me! Everyone in my family wants the rose pieces. Perfect cake to frosting ratio! Cake is really just for holding up the frosting, isn't it?
My only issue is that the first cake isn't frosted underneath the roses. It's just roses placed directly on top of the cake. At least they know how to make roses, otherwise, it would be worse!
If you're brave enough to enlarge the images by clicking on them, you can see that the brown between the roses on the first cake is definitely frosting. And the second cake (the only true wreck of the bunch, in my opinion, though I can see why you'd shy from the other two) says "Happy Birthday" in the upper left corner, and what looks like "Billie" in the lower right...though it could be "Billy" with an erroneously dotted y.
And don't you just love how on the number cake the decorator could only make one size of rose, so when it came time to put the Happy Bday on it she had to make little extra "flaps" that extend out to write on in teeny letters that you can't even read?? BRILLIANT!!
I think it does say Billie, but that can be a girl's name. My cousin's name is Billie. (girl)
The children at the home of those cake receipients were in heaven! I may be in the minority, but my favorite part of the cake is the residue leftover on the bottom, I would prefer my cake without icing so all those pretty roses would be swished to the side! Hours of wasted effort!
Mmmmm that first cake looks delicious. I honestly don't like cake (to eat, I love looking at cakes) so I always take a slice and just eat the frosting off. That first cake is like my dream dessert. lol (In fact, maybe that swipe off the cake was me and I was in such a daze of excitement I forgot I did that. Sorry guys!)
Eww. I hate icing roses. They mess up the cake to icing which should be like 3:1 not 1:1.
Diabetic coma, anyone?
Hi Jen,
I just love your blog. From the day I found your blog on the Blogs of Note, I have been following it every day. My son was diagnosed with leukemia 3 months ago. So your blog just lighten me up every day. Thanks for sharing all these "wrecks"...haha!
Blessings,
Evelyn
Have to say that these are my ideal cakes! Lots and lots and lots of frosting! :-)
Sometimes when I look at these cakes I get jealous that I can't eat them. Today is one of those days.
"Knowing is half the battle...
...the other half is violence." (I have that on a T-shirt). Violence, caused by a snap in the brain when one is confronted with too many hideously coloured roses, unevenly-coloured and -placed roses, or just too many darned roses, period, on a cake. Teeth hurt! :D
Click to enlarge the first picture. That looks like chocolate frosting under all of those roses!
That first cake resembles a vintage-retro women's bathing cap, visible here:
http://www.amazon.com/VINTAGE-STYLE-COLORFUL-PETALS-BATHING/dp/B000R9QJS6
Wanna wear a cake on your head? Wanna eat a bathing cap?
nom nom nom sugar rush.
The idea of all that icing makes me want to barf, but my son is drooling...
Number three does look like a casket. I'm not sure that's a good thing.
At least these cut down on the battles of "I want the rose!" "No! I want it!" There are enough roses for everyone!
I'm not sure the first and last cakes are wrecks. If you like frosting like my husband and kids, they're perfect! With your 600 submissions, I'm sure you could find something worse than these.
beloved30, I saw 211 instead of 20 as well. Great minds!
Eegads! That first cake is just ghastly!
The second one reminds me of the little tiny pink candleholders my mother used to have - they were little plastic rosettes and the candles fit in the centre of each one.
LOL on the "clock". I was a bit puzzled about that colour-change.
Kat
P.S. Blue roses are just wrong!
Hmmm...
Does anyone else think that the 20 looks like 211? That's what I saw when I first looked at it.
Karen
I think my mom used to have a bathing cap that looked an awful lot like that top cake.
I only count 19 candles on the 20 cake
OMG SO PRETTY!!!! <3 ^____^
I think the reason the first and last one were wrecks is because that's not what was ordered.
While they do look nice and I am one of those always wants the corner piece or one with a rose on it, these are making sick to my stomach just looking at all that frosting to eat.
Finally, a cake that my sister and I can share equally. She likes the frosting globs, I want the cake. Score!
Wow, that is WAY too much crisco & sugar goo. I think I just got a cavity.
Seriously thought that the 2nd cake would have been so much better had they put 20 roses instead of 19. Then they could have put a candle in each one!! K
Hm. Guess I don't consider the first a wreck. I like the way the lovely brown color of the cake peeks through the roses and leaves. 'Course, if it was my cake, it would probably be thrip and aphid infested as my real roses are. *sigh*
sciencegirl: Just leave me your roses gurlfriend! LOL
Mind you that 20 does look like 211. As for the third cake, if they didn't order it I just don't see them getting mad.
Orderer: Those darn bakers look at all this yummy roses on this cake! Now what I am going to do?
Kids at the party: Arrghuhguggle (Sound of kids drooling)
Save me a slice!!!!!
Peace,
Clueuin
Yikes! Look at all that icing...My blood sugar rose just looking at these cakes!!
Sometimes, too much of a good thing is not always good!
Ok, now you just outed your age with the GI Joe quote! ;) I use that line about 5 times a day...so ya know what gen I'm in!
Caryn
www.fuzzynoodlecraft.com
Ugly cake, cute cats. I just went to their site and they have some pretty cakes.
I also spent about an hour surfing your site. Hilarious.....but my boss says I should get back to work....oops didn't realize the lunch hour slipped by so fast!
Aw jeez...these are my dream cakes! I'm an icing nut...sadly, I'd be offered a slice of any of these and still think I was cheated on the flowers. Wreck or not, I'm all about icing. (I swear I have my cholesterol checked regularly!) LOL
Two words here....BLUE ROSES???
That is not natural. As a cake decorator that is a rule for me: NO blue Roses!!!! I will make other blue flowers but never roses.
Okay, these are my dream cakes, because I LOVE icing roses.
i kinda love the first one that's all covered in roses, but it is pretty awful that that's NOT what the client asked for.
the other two.... so bad.
What's REALLY funny abut the "211" is that it would've been much easier to make the "11" look like an "0" if the decorator(s) had spaced it just a little differently and used one more rose, to round out the curves you know, and that would have resulted in...20 roses!
Blue roses, bleah.
Just for clarification:
As eye-sore as those cakes are, my mother ordered similar ones for all of my birthdays growing up. I remember kids crying over 3 roses, and who got one. It was a pretty smart solution to ensure that every kid could get their frosting rose goodness...
At first glance I thought the 20 cake was a cupcake cake with a rose on every cupcake. A closer look disabused that notion.
I rather like the first one.
This might be wrong, but I kinda consider the first and third cakes cute.
Then again, I know #3 is pleasing to me simply because orange is my favourite colour.
I would not want to eat any of these, though.
Anyway, though, I guess I'm like chefann's husband. I'm actually really not big on cake. But I do like chocolate or mocha icing ^_^
People at my job would love these cakes bc they are always fighting over who gets the roses.
"So many roses..." :)
Like alot of other people who posted, I like eating the flowers. Those look yummy, even if they are tacky.
Yum! Everyone I know loves icing roses so that would be a great cake for me. Even better if they used those premade roses that taste like "safety" ice cream cones. I love those! I'd pay extra to have that many on a cake even if it did look wreck-y.
But the roses are always the best part! Doesn't everyone fight for them? So, these cakes solve a lot of problems.
(Actually, I think the first one is kind of beautiful.)
Elizabeth
Does anyone else think these all look suspiciously like funeral wreaths? You can just see them all piled in the back of a hearse!